DEPARDIEU'S 'IRON-CLAD' VALUES THE LATEST SCREEN MUSKETEER IS ALL FOR WONDERFUL STORIES OF HONOR, LOVE AND COURAGE

Gerard Depardieu says there were many reasons to grab at a role in "The Man in the Iron Mask.

" For one, the movie was being shot in France, which meant he could commute home to his 12th-century chateau in the Loire Valley with its working vineyard. He also had tremendous respect for Randall Wallace, who wrote "Braveheart" and who would be doing his first stint as a director. It very much caught his fancy that Wallace would try to incorporate those very old-fashioned values of the great French author Alexandre Dumas, who, of course, wrote the book, into a movie that might just interrupt the cynicism of the 20th century. Then there was the cast Gabriel Byrne, Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich and Leonardo DiCaprio. To be acting in the company of these men, well, who could resist, he asks. But the truth is that Depardieu just really wanted to be a Musketeer. "To be a Musketeer, it is a childhood dream," says the 49-year-old actor who first came to international attention in 1974 playing an overgrown juvenile delinquent in "Going Places.

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" "The Musketeers defend values that don't have much currency nowadays loyalty, a sense of honor, responsibility and passion.

" "The Man in the Iron Mask" is based on the concluding novel in the Muske-teers series. D'Artagnan (Byrne) still serves the king, but his majesty is now the cruel youth Louis XIII (DiCaprio). The three middle-aged Musketeers, Aramis (Irons), Athos (Malkovich) and Porthos (Depardieu) reunite in a mission to cure the country's ills. This, of course, puts them in opposition to the throne and D'Artagnan. It is such a boys' movie. They get to dress up, cross swords and be the ultimate do-right men. But it's also a movie women can love precisely because these are men of honor. And they look so good. Well, except maybe Depardieu. Porthos is a lovable fool, slovenly and disheveled, always in pursuit of the next woman and the next drink. But he is not such a simpleton that he's completely incapable of despair. As Porthos moans at one point: "I am going to hang myself as soon as I'm sober.

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" "Porthos is a natural complement to the Musketeers," says Depardieu. "He is so simple, such a child. Everything shows on his face, you can read him like an open book.

" As Porthos, Depardieu takes his clothes off onscreen again. In 1992, Depardieu, who as a young man was one of France's most nakedly handsome stars, promised to stop disrobing for the cameras. "I have learned, " he said then, "that actors should not be exhibitionists.

" He unlearned that lesson for this role because showing Porthos' expanse of flab was a "wonderful comic moment for the picture," says the actor, who appears to have slimmed down since the shoot. "But every night when I take my clothes off, I go: `So time flies.

" Depardieu, who over his career has been named best actor at Cannes and by the National Society of Film Critics as well as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which awards the Golden Globes, says that to be in the company of men like Byrne, Irons and Malkovich was about as good as it gets. "There were no egos. It was like being in a schoolyard," he says while reaching for a Gitane cigaret and relying on a translator to impart his meaning. Depardieu's English, heavily accented, is an effort for him to sustain. In interviews, he prefers to be free to lapse into French. "We would laugh at ourselves, at our idiosyncrasies. I brought them back to my castle and I'd cook for them. I cooked for them a lot.

" He also walked his co-stars through his vineyard. "I showed them where wine comes from," he says proudly, though one suspects they already knew. Young DiCaprio was very much included. "He knows what fun is," laughs Depardieu. "Beaucoup, beaucoup, beaucoup.

" During the shooting of "The Man in the Iron Mask," DiCaprio was not yet an international phenomenon. In fact, the talk was then that the movie "Titanic" was going to sink faster than the ship. But even then Depardieu says DiCaprio impressed him and the other senior fellows as a rare item. "There was his professionalism, his humility, his honesty and his beauty. It became even more majestical to serve this young man.

" As the latter remark shows, Depardieu is very caught up in the romanticism not just of the Musketeers but of what he sees as the current cinematic urge to present chivalry and decency as commodities to be celebrated. "I am very grateful to Jim Cameron [the director of "Titanic"] and Leonardo for what they have done. I'd rather have people, teenagers in particular, idolize a young romantic man who explodes in terms of love rather than a young rock singer who only excites and arouses. . . . It has been quite a while since people looked for these values.